The U.S. Department of Education has opened Title VI investigations into dozens of colleges and universities that are still engaging in race-based practices even after the department sent a Dear Colleague letter explaining what it says is the unlawfulness of race-based decisions in education.
Forty-five universities are being investigated for “allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs“ and seven for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation” according to a Department of Education news release.
The release said that the department’s Office for Civil Rights opened investigations “under Title VI” following its Feb. 14 Dear Colleague letter.
The Dear Colleague letter stated that race-based decisions in education are unlawful, and schools that fail to comply with the antidiscrimination requirements could face loss of federal funding, as The Center Square previously reported.
The 45 schools face investigations “amid allegations that these institutions have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) by partnering with ‘The Ph.D. Project,’” the department’s release said.
The Ph.D Project is “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants,” the release said.
Of the remaining seven universities being investigated by the Office for Civil Rights, six are “allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships” and one is “allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.”
Visiting Fellow for Higher Education Reform at the Heritage Foundation Adam Kissel told The Center Square that “these investigations emphasize how seriously the Department of Education is taking its duty to combat illegal DEI discrimination.”
“These universities paid to partner with the PhD Project when they knew it was discriminating by race and ethnicity,” Kissel said.
“While this discrimination has persisted for decades, the Supreme Court and the Department of Education both made clear that such discrimination will no longer be tolerated since it violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Kissel told The Center Square.
“Title VI investigations are a powerful tool for upholding civil rights because almost no college that gets federal funds wants that gravy train to end,” Kissel said.
Kissel told The Center Square that he also filed civil rights complaints against all U.S. colleges and universities that are listed as PhD Project partners and that he looks “forward to the vindication of civil rights at these institutions.”
As Kissel wrote, the PhD Project stated on its Form 990 to the government that its mission is “to increase workplace diversity by increasing the diversity of business school faculty who encourage, mentor, support and enhance the preparation of tomorrow’s leaders.”
Mention of the PhD Project’s original mission of “diversifying corporate America” has been scrubbed from its website, Kissel wrote.
When reached for comment, the Department of Education referred The Center Square to its news release.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the release that “students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin. We will not yield on this commitment.”
“The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination,” McMahon said.
“The agency has already launched Title VI investigations into institutions where widespread antisemitic harassment has been reported and Title IX investigations into entities which allegedly continue to allow sex discrimination,” McMahon said.
“Today’s announcement expands our efforts to ensure universities are not discriminating against their students based on race and race stereotypes,” McMahon said.
